FOLIOEmily Moody tromped through more than 50 nightclubs and bars hunting for a place to reopen her idiosyncratic Five Points club Underbelly. In late December, when she got word that the Ivy Ultra Bar on East Bay Street was closing, she and partner Cameron Beard stopped by during Happy Hour to check out the venue.
With more than five times the area of the cramped old Underbelly digs and no outdoor area, the space clearly had a different vibe. But Moody and Beard could still envision it as a cozy club that felt more like party in a friend’s living room than an impersonal bar. “We took two steps inside, and said, ‘We want it,’ ” Moody recalls.
The original club grew out of Moody’s tiny Five Points vintage clothing store Anomaly. She installed a sliding bookshelf at the back of her shop that led to a backyard space, and cleared out 40 years of trash in order to reclaim the spot for her nightclub. She and Flux Gallery owner Shea Slemmer built a treehouse in a large live oak for the DJ booth, strung tea lights and nestled vintage furniture amid it all.
The club became a popular hangout and a spot booked frequently for fundraisers, in part because of its effortless backyard party vibe. But Moody’s landlord said he had complaints about parking, trash and noise, and in May, gave her 30 days to leave. Moody had been in business in Five Points for six years, but within a month was out of her space and unemployed. A similar fate befell the Lomax Lounge in Five Points, whose owner Ian Ranne is part owner of the Burro Bar downtown and Shantytown Pub in Springfield.
Moody describes the past year as a dark time when she would wake up and just want to go back to sleep. She took a job as a jewelry merchandiser for Old Navy, but avoided club patrons. They wanted to know when Underbelly would reopen, and she didn’t know. “I would run into the back to keep from bursting into tears,” she says.
She says now that her experience reminds her of the kinds of challenges that prompted some of her friends to leave Jacksonville altogether. But both Moody and Beard are natives, and Moody jokes that when they run into problems, they have a line they repeat: “Oh no, Jacksonville, not this time. We’re staying.”
The new Underbelly at 113 E. Bay St. will be different from the plein de air version, but Moody plans to bring the outside in with rustic, woodsy furnishings and lots of greenery. One of the walls is exposed brick, another will be a living wall festooned with plants and a third is available for rotating art exhibits. The DJ booth will be wrapped in cedar planks and recycled wood pallets and artist Dolf James has created a set of barstools out of pallets.
The performance stage will be as large as the stage at Freebird Live, about 350 square feet — big enough that the new theater group Five and Dime plans to stage the rock opera “Hedwig and the Angry Itch” over the holidays — and the club plans to host bands ranging from bluegrass to indie rock, folk and electronica. A soft opening is planned during Jazz Fest May 24-27. The grand opening will be held on June 14, and will feature Chapel Hill indie band Lost in the Trees. Since they played at Underbelly last year, Lost in the Trees has become so well-known that NPR has posted an artist’s page for the band on its website: http://n.pr/KqK4jg.
Ranne, who opened the Phoenix Taproom on Forsyth Street three months after closing the Lomax Lounge, says it’s different running a club downtown. There isn’t the foot traffic that Five Points has or the neighborhood gathering spot feeling that comes from being surrounded by a neighborhood. But he says the downtown scene is evolving. “It’s nice to feel like you are part of something that’s improving,” says Ranne. “In Riverside, I felt as if I was intruding on unspoken rules that have always been in place. Downtown, we make our own rules.
“As much as I do love Five Points and miss working there,” Ranne continues, “I do have a feeling it has reached its peak and is never gonna change, while downtown will continue improving in my lifetime.”
Susan Cooper E
sceastman@folioweelky.c
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